The elite target share will be there, but the job will be tougher if he doesn’t stay in the slot

Ideally for fantasy purposes, we want Juju to play a majority of his snaps in the slot. Not as easy to double team, hardly any press coverage, he’ll barely see any top corners, and it’ll be easier to navigate zone coverage and rack up a high reception total. There’s more likelihood of him scoring TDs on the outside and more of a chance at bigger plays, but there’s no doubt that it’s a tougher challenge. He’s had some success on the outside, but part of that success came from AB drawing a lot of attention on the other side of the field; you can’t double two guys.

Without AB in the lineup in Week 17, Juju played a high percentage of snaps on the outside, and the Bengals proceeded to double team him all game; he ended up with 5 catches on 10 targets for 37 yards and a TD. Last season, he also had the opportunity to play without AB in the final two games of the season, where he averaged 7.5 catches on 8.5 targets for 109 yards and a TD. In Week 17, he upped his snap percentage outside to 75%, and proceeded to catch 9 of 10 targets for 143 yards and a TD against the Browns… as a rookie. This shows that he has the ability when called upon, although the Browns were a matchup that was pretty exploitable – going into that game, the Browns were actually very stout against slot WRs, but very vulnerable on the perimeter.

Another thing to keep in mind was that AB was able to get it done without any serious complement at WR for his entire four-year ridiculous streak before Juju arrived. Martavis showed some flashes, and it showed in AB’s numbers, as that year was his career year. But outside of that, AB really did it on his own in that offense. Now, we can’t compare Juju to AB – at least not yet. AB proved that he was able to get it done as the only real threat at WR for a number of years, so Juju will have to prove that he can get it done without arguably the best WR in the game taking coverage away from him, while we will likely have to pay the first round price as if he’s already done it; I think that’s probably the only issue I have.

Do you think there is some risk drafting Juju at the end of the 1st or early 2nd round, or are you fine with him being your WR1?